The N. Williamsburg Russian Orthodox Cathedral in bloom. (Taken with instagram)
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in friuli, these branches are hung outside a family’s home as a signifier to those passing through that they’re welcome to stop in for food and drink. they’re called frasca and they’re everywhere here. so sweet and so italian that it makes me want to cry a little. (Taken with instagram)
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this is rosazzo, friuli. a commune or ‘cru’ within the colli orientali del friuli that is home to some of the region’s best vineyard sites. it’s also the prettiest (sorry rocca bernarda). (Taken with instagram)
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1. Its combination of pop appeal and subtle austerity inspires you to dig deep into your German Eurodance repertoire. In the words of the late 1990s pop phenom Real McMcoy, “you better watch out girl, cuz [schioppettino’s] on [its] way to put a piece of love inside your heart…”
2. It flaunts the gang colors of COF. In every Italian region there is at least one wine that capture’s your personal impression of a region—its colors, smells, and the energy of the place. The red wines made from schioppettino speak perfectly to the merger of alpine and Mediterranean climates, combining the salinity we often associate with wines grown near the ocean with the Apollonian vivacity of alpine fruit and aromatics. #Eastsideforlife.
3. Its feral tang. Thewild, raw quality of the fruit in schioppettino feels at home in a region that, despite hundreds of years of winemaking history, is still refreshingly untamed and improvisational.
4. Its ability to, in the right hands, be as magnetic in youth as it is in old age. Ronchi di Cialla proves that the grape can not only be the sort of wine you’d like to chill down and pound, but a wine that can be cellar-worthy, expressive of place, and profoundly elegant.
5. It’s as Friulian as frico. The diversity of the clones of schioppettino in the Colli Orientali suggest that it is, as Paolo Rapuzzi of Ronchi di Cialla would say, the “most native of the native varieties.”
Producers of particular note: Ronchi di Cialla, Specogna.
